The next couple of days were very hectic. End of the year exams had arrived along with apparition testing. During this time, I didn't see Albus once. He seemed to be doing a good job of avoiding me. Strangely, this kind of upset me. I mean, the guy kisses me and then I never see him again. It's probably a good thing, I told myself, if he did come and talk to me I'd have no idea what to say to him.
"Gem, hurry up. We have to get to the Great Hall for Apparition." Rose called to me. Somehow, I had gotten far behind Rose and Scorpius. We had been walking together from the Transfiguration classroom. Besides apparition, that was our final test.
"I'm coming," I jogged a little to catch up with them and then went back to my own thoughts. I hadn't told anyone I already knew how to apparate. I went over all the information in my head that I'd need for the written test. Scorp, Rosie, and I all arrived at the Great Hall with barely enough time to get inside.
"Hello, students, as you know we will be taking the apparition final." An older man from the ministry informed the group of sixth years. "First, you will take the written test and then we will score you individually on your apparating ability. Good luck." With that paper appeared in front of us. After what seemed like hours, I had finished my test quickly, the ministry official announced, "times up." The papers disappeared, "we will go in alphabetical order." The guy went through the first names on the list rapidly. We watched as the students came up. A couple of students successfully transported themselves to their given location. Unfortunately, one girl almost splinched herself and another one was so scared she fainted. After that, it was my turn. "Black, Gemini." I walked up to the man, "I would like you to apparate to Hogsmeade and back. We have a person waiting for you near Honeydukes. Can you do that?" The man gave me a questioning look as though he thought I might do something similar to the girls before me. I gave him a smile and went Pop!
When I opened my eyes, I was standing on the sidewalk in front of Honeydukes. I looked around for who I was supposed to talk to and found a young woman standing by the big display window. She had a sign propped up beside her. "Hello, I'm Gemini Black." I told her.
She looked up at me, "Good job." She wrote something on the paper in her hand, "You can go back now." I nodded and she went back to a stack of papers she had next to her. I looked at the candy shop and decided I could spare a couple of minutes. Fifteen minutes later, I arrived back in the Great Hall, in the exact place I left, with a stack of candy in my arms.
"What took you so long?" The man asked when he heard me appear, "Wilkinson had you marked off long ago."
"I got hungry." I responded popping a Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean in my mouth, "Awesome, caramel." I told him walking back to my seat. He gave me a slightly angry look, but didn't say anything other than the next name.
An hour later, we were let out of the Hall and I left to go to the common room. There seemed to be a party going on in the room, so I went looking for so peace and quiet. My first thought was my dorm room, but then I saw Patrice going up there so I ruled that out. I left and started walking around the school. Everywhere was filled with people and when I walked passed a window, it was raining outside. So, I wasn't having any luck. Then I remembered about the Room of Requirement. Mattie's parents told her about it and how to find it, so I knew where to look.
I made my way to the seventh floor and paced the hallway three times, "I need a place I can hear myself think."
The door appeared and inside was a spacious room that had a fireplace, a rug and a couple of chairs. I dropped myself down in one and closed my eyes contently. After a couple of minutes, I reopened my eyes wondering what I should do. The Room took this as an opportunity to vanish everything in the room except for the fireplace.
From my new position on the ground, I watched as a small hamster ball appeared along with short ramps on the walls. "A hamster ball," I heard myself think. It took me a little while to realize what I could use it for. I transformed myself into a hedgehog and got inside the ball. After awhile, I got use to the rolling of the ball and started racing across the room, up the ramps, and down again. I got caught up in this and blindly ran into something. I lifted my short head and looked up to see Albus standing in the room. When he felt me hit him, he looked down at me. "A hedgehog?" He reached down and picked up the ball. I scrunched myself as far back as I could. Albus reached inside the ball to get me out, so I lifted my quills and poked him. The ball dropped fast and I became dazed when I crashed to the ground.
"Stupid hedgehog," I heard him say. I glared indignantly at him and heard him say a few cuss words. I jumped back, when I noticed his lips weren't moving.
"What in the world." I said, but it came out as a squeak.
"Great my fingers bleeding," came from Albus, but again his lips weren't moving.
I came out of the ball and slowly approached him. "Squeak," I said looking at him. What I was actually saying was, "serves you right."
He sat down on the floor in front of me. "Sorry, if I scared you little guy." This time I noticed his lips were moving, but I was puffing at him for calling me a guy. "What are you doing in here?"
"I was having fun, until you barged in," which came out, as a series of squeaks. I contemplated changing back into myself, but I decided against because then he would know I was Animagus.
Suddenly he got up, and looked around the room. The ramps and ball vanished and was replaced by a hamster wheel and colorful tubes for rodents to walk around in. He tried to pick me up, but I ruffled my quills at him. So, instead he picked up the hamster wheel and put it next to me. I looked from him to the wheel to him again. "Never been in a hamster wheel?" he asked me, "I had a hamster when I was eight, but it died before I came to Hogwarts." He seemed to think I didn't know what the wheel was for, so he asked the room for a human-sized hamster wheel. It was a strange sight, watching Albus walking around in a hamster wheel. After a couple of turns, he got off and looked at me again. I decided to humor him and I got on the smaller wheel. I, slowly, turned the wheel and after about ten turns I fell out dizzy. He came over and scooped me up. "Apparently, hamster wheels aren't good for hedgehogs." Even in my current state, I noticed that I couldn't see his lips forming the words. I almost poked him again in surprise, but I caught myself before I did.
The wheel disappeared like the ball and chairs appeared. He sat down and put me on the arm rest. The spinning had stopped so I took the time to look at Albus. He looked really confused. His black hair was a mess and his glasses were sliding down the bridge of his nose.
All at once, a humongous noise came out of know where. It seemed as though Albus was carrying on six conversations at once. I looked at him questioningly, "Squeak?"
"I was thinking." I gave him a thinking-about-what look, "I was thinking about a lot of things."
I heard a distinct voice say, "Nice, I'm talking to an animal." It sounded like Albus, but it couldn't have been him because he was saying something else. I glanced around the room, but I didn't see anybody else. The whole hearing voices thing was starting to bother me. There had to be a reasonable explanation, I thought to myself. I went through logical steps: what had happened, who had come in to the room, what was said. Then it dawned on me, I had asked the room for a place I could hear myself think. The Room must have made it so I can hear what people are thinking. After the initial shock, I thought: Cool!
While I was thinking, I didn't realize Albus had started talking again. "I think I passed my Care of Magical Creatures Class, but I probably will fail Astronomy." He sighed, "I haven't seen her since breakfast." This caught my attention and I moved myself closer to him. Albus seemed to forget I was there because he jumped when my quills touched his arm. "Do you want to know about her? I seemed to have bored Rose talking about her." I laid down waiting for him to continue. He hesitated, "there is this girl in my year I have a crush on. She's got long, dark hair. It's kind of wavy, but it's hard to tell because she always has it pulled into a pony tail. She's a good student and friends with my two best friends. She loves to pull pranks, and I accidentally got her a detention. It was embarrassing, but kind of funny because the prefects thought we had been snogging. She was mad at me, but I think she forgave me by the time our detention came around. We had to clean the library. She threw a book at me and knocked me over. Then, she got pushed over on top of me." He paused, "I kissed her, which I guess was a bad idea because she ran away." He sighed, "And since then, I have been hiding out in here avoiding her." I guess that explains why I never saw him. "The worst thing about the entire situation is that she fancies my friend, Scorpius." I never knew he thought that and I was so taken aback, I fell over into his lap. The sudden movement caused me to switch back to my human form. So, I sat on Albus' lap as myself. Completely mortified, I jumped up and tried to get away. Albus grabbed my wrist, and gave me a confused, "huh?"
"Uh, uh…I'm an Animagus." I said.
He released my wrist; "I just told you…" he trailed off.
I took this lapse to escape. "I got to go," I said hurriedly sprinting to the door. I continued running even after I left the Room of Requirement. About two floors down, I ran face first into someone. "I'm sorry," I looked up to see what I had run into and saw Professor McGonagall. "I didn't see you, Professor."
She looked a little ruffled, but said, "It's quite alright, Miss Black. I was actually looking for you. I have a summer job for you, but I have a meeting to get to so I will tell you more about it later." McGonagall started walking again, but turned back, "You know, Miss Black, you should stop running away." I just stared at her as she continued walking away.